Among the fields of the invention are electronic wireless networking, wireless networking circuits and devices, and circuits and processes for network control and data transfer in such networks, circuits and devices.
Consumer electronics devices should desirably be interconnected with one another for control and data transfer between them. Important considerations for such devices individually and collectively in networks include favorable user experience, fast data transfer of different kinds of data and data streams that have different quality of service (QoS) needs, minimum power consumption especially in mobile devices, and convenience of connecting and getting different devices to work with one another. Not surprisingly, these and other considerations or dimensions of performance trade off with one another, and advances in the art that could somehow provide enhanced performance on multiple such dimensions concurrently would be most desirable.
Exciting uses of consumer electronics in today's world are increasingly featuring computerized applications that involve streaming data and/or large files on fixed, portable, and mobile devices. Some of these applications include internet audio, video, and movies and other content on demand, internet video conferencing, gaming, social networking sites, still picture galleries, large downloadable files and objects, location-based services for mobile and other devices, and many others. Accordingly, technologies for rapidly handling streaming data and/or large files on fixed, portable, and mobile devices are of considerable importance to both the industry and the public.
Among various wired forms of device interconnection is Universal Serial Bus (USB), such as USB 2.0, which is a standardized form of fast data transfer that has a recognizable socket on the side of many devices familiar to consumer public. Cords with distinctive USB plugs connect to such devices, and these cords have length constraints and are manually connected.
One form of wireless local area networking (WLAN) is called WiFi, or IEEE 802.11. In many computers and mobile devices, a WiFi modem is built-in, such as for wirelessly connecting to a WiFi access point (AP) that may also be called a router, gateway, or hotspot. And for computers lacking such a built-in WiFi modem, a kind of product called a WLAN adapter or dongle has a USB plug connected by a cable to a thumb-sized modem unit outboard of the computer. Whether built-in or outboard, this WiFi unit uses a mechanism where in multiple devices in the wireless network compete for use of the wireless medium or space and frequencies by which they communicate. An electronic process of collision avoidance, and arbitrating about which device will be using the medium at any given time, takes up time and constrains the speed or bandwidth of this type of network for fast transfer of streaming data and large files. A conventional type of WiFi modem or WLAN adapter simply couples to computer applications in some manner at a high software level called an application layer, and physically is coupled over an internal computer parallel bus or in serial manner perhaps by USB for the data to get to the WiFi modem or WLAN adapter. The wireless network like WiFi then operates according and subject to its above-mentioned native constraints that cause data throughput for particular devices to vary, because of factors such as network overhead as well as current volume of network traffic and environmental factors like building structures.
Another form of wireless communication called Ultra Wide Band (UWB) has a limited range and has been used to provide a kind of wireless USB called WUSB. This WUSB technology is attractive. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen the extent to which that WUSB/UWB type of technology will penetrate the consumer space, which is extremely cost sensitive and in the mobile devices is especially sensitive to power consumption issues and additional complexities of hardware, software and wireless coexistence with other wireless communications modems and their different software methodologies and stacks.
Accordingly, significant departures and alternatives in circuits, processes and systems for addressing the above considerations and problems would be most desirable.